Sleeping through the night

[Megankate2112]

Hi all,

My daughter is 11 weeks old and has just about started sleeping through the night, she will go down to sleep (after a cluster feeding) from around 10pm till 5am.

However once she's up she will have a feed then maybe sleep for another hour then is up most of the day!

What time did your little ones start sleeping for longer at night?

[HerculesParrot]

As I'm sure other people will be typing right now, 10-5 is an excellent chunk of sleep at that age. You are currently at the happy ending of the spectrum.

That said, my little girl started doing 10 till about 7 at 11 weeks and never missed a night till she was 7 months old. Since then she's been up 1-3 times a night. It doesn't always progress in a straight line... Enjoy your 7 hours and don't take anything for granted!

[Lovelongweekends]

10 - 5 sounds like bliss!! Dd3 is 7months old and will still only sleep for 2.5hrs at a time and is up for the day st 5am!! Neither dd1 or dd2 slept through the night until I stopped bfing when they turned 1!!

[LapinR0se]

At 11 weeks old your baby needs about 16 hours of sleep per 24 hours so it's really not good if she is awake most of the day.
What is happening about naps?

[glitterglitters]

19 months.

[Sparrowlegs248]

Ds1 was waking once or twice a night at 12 months, slept through (bedtime to getting up at 4.30/5) at about 15 months.

Ds2 is 3.5 months and sleeps from bedtime (8/9pm) and wakes once or twice a night. Has been known to sleep 8-4!!

[FATEdestiny]

then is up most of the day!

That's really unhealthy sleep. Awake most of the day starts from around 2 to 4 years old.

[MoominFlaps]

It is unhealthy sleep. There's no way an 11 week old baby should be up all day - they need 16 hours sleep in 24 hours at that age.

It's great her night sleep is so good but day sleep is equally as important. My 15 month old sleeps 11 hours at night and 2-3 hours in the day still.

OP does she not nap at all? Not even in a sling or pram?

[Megankate2112]

I think I may have confused things here! I say up most of the day but I mean she sleeps in the pram whenever we go out or she has 30/40 mins naps throughout the day!

I mean she just doesn't nap for longer than an hour at a time :)

Also not complaining at the nights sleep I know I'm lucky for now! Was just wanting to compare to other mummy's and babas x

[EnglandKeepMyBones]

My 14 month old has only just started sleeping from 7pm till 4.30pm then is up for the day. Previous to this she woke hourly and had done since birth.

[Megankate2112]

I used to be up every hour for feeds and then just all of a sudden when she was about 7/8 weeks she just slept through! I remember panicking at first as I couldn't believe I had a good night sleep haha!

[FATEdestiny]

Awake for most of 17 hours in 24 and asleep for only 7 hours in 24 is unhealthy sleep for any child, certainly a new baby. A flip of those awake/asleep proportions would be more appropriate.

Megankate2112 - a reasonable approximation for sleep at this age would be approximately 90 minutes awake time followed by a nap (which might be short) all through the day. Babies are all different, but this would be a fair average.

Having a good block of 7h at night is great, not unusual at this age. But baby needs a lot more sleep than that. 14-18 hours sleep in 24 hours would be a figure to work towards.

Maybe you and baby need to work on a few methods for getting baby to sleep in the daytime?

[FATEdestiny]

Crossed post with both of the above posts from op.

[pumpkin17]

My son is 18 months and still hasn't slept longer than 3-4 hours in a row. I'd put up with a 5am start if I could get that chunk of sleep!

[Frazzled2207]

2ish (years)

[Megankate2112]

She does get that amount of sleep but it's made up of shorter naps throughout the day which just feels as though she's up! I think my post was misinterpreted, sorry for not putting it across clearly :) x

[FATEdestiny]

Don't worry, short naps are usual that this age. Keep them frequent by limiting awake time between one nap and the next.

Naps in something that moves is a great way to try to extend short naps - bouncy chair or pushchair for example. But that will come when baby is developmentally ready.

[OhGood]

Hi OP.Congratulations on your baby! It sounds like you're on the right track. It took a while for my 2 to settle down to "proper" daytime naps. DS (the second) didn't start napping in anything like a routine until he was about 8 months old.

I would say if you're OK and your baby is OK, just go with it, and enjoy this little patch of blissfully good night-time sleep while it lasts! Plenty of time to start easing your baby into a routine when you're ready to do that.

[Megankate2112]

Thank you! Yeah I haven't got a set routine with her at all for naps I just feed her on demand and let her nap when she's ready, at the moment she tends to fall asleep on me for her naps or in her rocker, she seems to dislike the Moses basket during the day!

[MoominFlaps]

Oh, in that case fine - she's not up all day. Cat naps are totally normal at that age, my son didn't start doing long naps til he dropped the third nap at 6.5 months.

[glitterglitters]

Tbh we didn't really have a nap structure until about 6 months +

[Uiscebeatha85]

I'd be grateful for 10-5, that's amazing at that age. Long may it last 4 month sleep regression may fuck things royally